Brayton, Cumpston, Guo, Hinrichs, Hoagstrom & Norton 1 The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence The Flying Saucepans Cassie Brayton Myca Cumpston Jessica Guo Claire Hinrichs Kristine Hoagstrom Rachel Norton Brayton, Cumpston, Guo, Hinrichs, Hoagstrom & Norton 2 Introduction Since the beginning of time, humankind has looked up at the stars and wanted to explore them. In more recent times, scientists have gazed up at galaxies with high-powered telescopes and wondered what other kinds of intelligent life might exist out there. This exploration of space and the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence is driven by the power of computers and computer science. Without computers, there would be no rovers, no computer models of other planets, no high-powered telescope and satellite arrays to scan the frequencies for communications from aliens. Through humankind’s knowledge of geometry and math, we can use computers to estimate distances to far-away stars. Through our understanding of our own biology, we can guess where to look for other intelligent beings and even guess what they might look like or eat. Computers allow humankind to imagine extra-terrestrial with more creativity and more accuracy. They might even help us find them one day! Unmanned Space Vehicles ExoMars, planned to take off May 2018, is an unmanned spacecraft sent by the European Space Agency (ESA). The ExoMars project is hitching a ride on another rover sent by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA’s probe’s goal is to study Mars rocks for preserved life. This task will be accomplished using a coring tool. After finding a few dozen rocks from areas around the landing site, these samples are put into canisters. These canisters will be stored in a safe place for later pick-up, by a “Fetch” rover, whose mission is still being planned. The Russian Phobos-Grunt rover was programmed to collect samples from a moon of Mars. Source: www.space.com/13870-russia-phobos-grunt- spacecraft-life.html Brayton, Cumpston, Guo, Hinrichs, Hoagstrom & Norton 3 Space probes are different from remote-controlled rovers or space shuttles. Instead of having a person controlling them, they are programmed to run on their own. Here’s a pseudocode example: if right bumper hits, then go backwards and turn left. A problem with probes is if it comes into contact with something it’s not familiar with, it could possibly destroy itself. Programmers have to be careful to prepare the robot for many situations. A hybrid model, a remote-controlled rover and a space probe put together, could be move useful than any general space probe. In these spacecraft, the probe does the regular avoiding rocks and other items, but in more difficult tasks, such as launching other probes, it relies on radio signals from Earth. This is tricky because sometimes it takes a long time to relay to a probe on, say, Saturn and back- that would take approximately forty-eight minutes! Modeling Computer modeling is using a computer to model the likelihood of possible situations working out if you do different tests/things. In primary function of computer modeling, you create a scenario, then go back and change a detail to evaluate the outcome. It’s like a simulation of a real or imaginary world that can be altered using computer modeling. The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is the science of using radio, optical sensors, and telescopes to search for alien civilizations. SETI started in 1959 with the publication of a paper in the British journal Nature by Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison. They decided to explore the existence of alien civilizations and how they might be detected. It was their opinion that radio waves were the best method for detecting this. NASA’s research involves looking for clues by creating virtual planets that interact with other planets and stars. Hundreds of planets have been discovered, most of which are gaseous and unable to maintain life. As more and more rocky-surfaced planets are discovered, computer Brayton, Cumpston, Guo, Hinrichs, Hoagstrom & Norton 4 modeling can be used to determine the planet’s features. These features include temperature, magnitude of gravity, the air/atmosphere/oxygen level, soil content, and climate. When you model a planet on a computer, you need to consider human needs to survive on a planet. Food is an obvious human need. Humans need food for the energy to grow and function daily. Humans also need oxygen to get energy from nutritional sugars. Nutrients from food build nails, skin and hair and help mend bones and organs. Water, another human need, allows these nutrients to circulate through the body and helps regulate body temperature. Keeping bodies at a moderate temperature maintains water in its liquid state in our bodies at all times. Finally, gravity allows human biological systems to properly function. When considering a new planet, we have to take into account all these essential needs, and we also have to protect ourselves from poisonous gases and radiation from the sun. Toxic gases and radiation can cause cancer, disease, and damage to the body. Now, you’re probably wondering why in the world any of this would matter. Well, remember that through NASA’s efforts in computer modeling, we are now discovering more and more planets possibly suited for life as we know it. How could we discover these planets and analyze possible outcomes without computer modeling? With the new technology being formed today, we might someday just discover a second earth! Habitable Planets There are all different kinds of technology being used to find if planets can harbor earth- like life forms. For example, Argentinian researchers have invented a microbial fuel cell that could be used to find life forms by means of metabolism, or an energy source. Scientists don’t use something that would only detect carbon, though. Most life forms on Earth are carbon- based, but there is actually one life form on Earth that is nitrogen-based, something scientists didn’t think was possible before they made this discovery. To detect an alien metabolism, Brayton, Cumpston, Guo, Hinrichs, Hoagstrom & Norton 5 researchers embed an anode, or a device that electric current flows through and into an electric device, in the substance to be studied (i.e. Martian soil). They then use protons and neutrons to create a circuit, and depending on how strong the current is, they can tell if life forms exist in the substance or not. Scientists also use technologies to detect visible and infared light reflecting off of a planet. Chemicals absorb certain wavelengths, and depending on how much of the spectrum is missing, they can tell which chemicals make up the atmosphere of the planet, and therefore if the planet can support life. Remember Tatooine from Star Wars? NASA has even found planets just like that orbiting double suns! Unfortunately, the planet they found is actually cold, gaseous, and probably doesn’t harbor life. Searching for planets is easier than ever with new technologies. Using powerful telescopes like Kepler, astronomers can search for stars with variations in the light emitted and find out that there is a planet orbiting there, blocking a little bit of the light from the sun. You can even go to planethunters.org and try it yourself! Cool, right? An earth-like planet would need to orbit a sun at a certain distance to have liquid water and be the right temperature for earth-like life. Source: www.nasa.gov/kepler/ Kepler Imagine a day when thousands of people watched as streams of fire lit up the night sky. Then, imagine those streams depositing a telescope that would look for little green Brayton, Cumpston, Guo, Hinrichs, Hoagstrom & Norton 6 men on other planets. If you can imagine that, then you are seeing Kepler, NASA’s alien- finding telescope, burst into space on March 6. The Kepler Project has many parts, including processing the never-ending stream of data and finding the planets in the first place. On March 6, 2009, Kepler was launched with a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its mission is to find earth-like planets that could support life. So far, Kepler has looked at over 100,000 stars to see if there are planets orbiting them. Kepler monitors any change in light, and if the change happens regularly, scientists at NASA can deduce that a planet is orbiting this star. For an earth-sized planet orbiting a star, the change in light is less than 1/100 of 1 percent. That’s equivalent to detecting a bug crawling on your car’s headlights from several miles away. Now that’s pretty small! Then, the scientists use a type of telescope that make the Fraunhofner lines appear. These colors or color spectrum are used to see which colors are being absorbed, and those smart people at NASA know which chemicals absorb which color of light. Using this information, they can figure out the chemical makeup of the planet they’re looking at to see if it’s inhabitable. Some of the things they are looking for are water, carbon dioxide, an atmosphere and oxygen. A plane with a chemical makeup like ours, has a “golden thumbprint”. Usually, scientists are ecstatic to find out if there is a possibility that bacteria can live on a planet. First, data are downloaded from the spacecraft through the Deep Space Network. The Mission Operations Center at Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) receives the data in radio waves and sorts them into files by the type of data. The data are then sent to the Data Management Center at Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland (STScI), where they are archived.